The Guilfordian

"Her photographs convey something that hovers over the flame of a more intense world," said poet Verónica Volcow in her introduction to the photography book: Flor Garduño: Inner Light.

Guilford students and community members, many clad in Halloween costumes, meandered through Guilford's art exhibit reception last Wed. observing the photography of Flor Garduño, who has work displayed in MOMA in New York, and the J.P. Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The exhibit will remain at Guilford until the end of the semester, and all students and Greensboro community members are encouraged to come out and observe.

"I think students and the surrounding community need to be exposed to all kinds of art on a regular basis, so it becomes part of everyone's lives," said Porter Halyburton, a Greensboro resident who attended the opening.

The Guilford College Art Gallery walls now display images of nude women and still lifes. Each picture is black and white and simple, most of them somehow connected to nature. The reactions of chatting observers proved how many different meanings each picture can convey. People discussed which was their favorite, and what they thought it meant. Some remained quiet, deep in thought.

"I think it's a celebration of women and fertility," said Theresa N. Hammond, the Director and Curator of the Guilford College Art Gallery.

Garduño has been publishing her photography since her first book in 1985. She has been focusing on the photography of still life and nudes since the birth of her second child, Olin, in 1995.

"Photography always shows aspects of things or of other people that you don't know of," said Garduño in Inner Light.

Whether it's photography or any other type of art, the Guilford College Art Gallery continues to represent a broad spectrum.

"Guilford makes sure that their art exhibits come from many different places, constantly changing and bringing in new cultures," said senior Laura Dukeshire, who attended the reception.

Hammond first found Flor Garduño's art in a search for something to go along with Isabel Allende coming for the Brian series and the current celebration of Latin American culture at Guilford.

Hammond looked around the exhibit the day after the opening, it's quiet and peaceful atmosphere contrasting with that of the previous day.

"In each of these pictures, there's a story … it's a gift and I hope that students would appreciate it and enjoy it," Hammond said.

Hammond is not the only one who finds Garduño's work moving; she has been called a "poet photographer," depicting countless messages within her work.

"Powerfully suggestive atmospheres, people and objects transformed, enhanced, by the aura of the poetic metaphor," Volcow said about Garduño's work.

Garduño speaks to Volcow in Inner Light about how most of the women in her pictures are friends, and the immense gift it is for them to pose.

"It seems that the women who decide to pose for a picture go through a very profound acceptance of their womanhood and their image, they dare to pose and feel beautiful and be themselves," Garduño said. "Something inside becomes unbound."

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